Small businesses still hurting

Everyone knows that the economy is bad, especially those of us working professionally. This fall, I'm broadcasting high school football. To produce the games, I had to sell my own advertising this summer. "It can't be that hard," I thought. President Obama deemed this the "recovery summer," and Americans have more spending money than they did a year ago.

In the span of three weeks, I courted small businesses throughout northern Idaho, from sporting goods stores to restaurants to car dealerships. After pursuing nearly 20 businesses, I ended up with one sponsor. Why?  In the words of small-business owners, the economic policies of our federal government. The same answer echoed through the phone again and again, "No, we can't afford it." Considering our rates were low, I dug deeper, and asked the business owners the million-dollar question: "Your business has money but you're sitting on it. The economy is better than last year. So why won't you spend any to stimulate it?"

A local restaurant owner cited three policies from the government that have driven up his operating costs in this recession:

1. The Health care bill ("Obamacare"). Premiums for his family and employees rose thousands of dollars that month for the same coverage as 2009. The New York Times confirmed that, contrary to what congressional Democrats originally promised, the bill will raise premiums for taxpaying Americans. Politico reports that the Democrats running for re-election have stopped pitching that it will lower costs. Most aspects of the program won't kick in until 2014, but the Wall Street Journal cited that health care companies, including Aetna and BlueCross BlueShield, know the worst is coming: They are already passing on higher premiums to policyholders "as a direct result of the healthcare overhaul."

2. Taxes. President Obama promised during a 2008 debate hosted by Charles Gibson that he would raise capital gains taxes at the end of 2010 for "purposes of fairness."

He and congressional Democrats have stated that they plan to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the rich, even though, according to the Heritage Foundation, Washington's leading conservative think tank, small—business owners that fall under their classification of "rich" ($250,000 in revenue) already pay 80 percent of small business taxes.

3. The financial regulation bill. This summer, Business Week reported that Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) financial regulation bill will massively shore up credit. It is already making it harder for small business to get loans: They've been deemed "unnecessary risks" under the law's guidelines. It empowers the federal government to liquidate any business that accepted stimulus or bailout money, if a bureaucrat deems it is "failing." Finally, it creates a new Consumer Protection Bureau, further encouraging government intrusion into small-business operations.

I heard the same response from business after business. By the end of my selling spree, the small­­-business owners echoed a single sentiment: They are unsure what the government is going to throw at their business and the economy, and afraid to spend money because of it.

Supporters of the administration continue to blame former President Bush for the economic mess. But since President Obama took office, America has lost 7.5 million jobs, even with the $787 billion stimulus. Unemployment is stagnant at about 10 percent, real unemployment is about 18 percent including those who gave up looking for work. The Democratic Congress has already doubled-down on the national debt that their predecessors previously doubled. Finally, Bush critics forget that the Executive Branch doesn't have the power to spend money, so Bush couldn't actually spend anyway. That is reserved for the legislative branch, which Democrats took over on Jan. 3, 2007. When Dodd became the head of the Senate Finance Committee, and Barney Frank of the House Financial Services Committee, the previous month's GDP increase, under GOP leadership, was 3.6 percent. We have never gotten back to pre-2007 growth.

The time has come for the government to stop blaming others for the mess they created and are currently worsening. I'm no economics expert; I'm a broadcasting major. Yet I find a huge disconnect between President Obama's speeches and the actions of the Democratic Congress — which say they want the economy to thrive — and the laws they actually pass that hinder its recovery. And if the liberal Jim Cramer, from CNBC's "Mad Money," says that "this is the greatest wealth destruction I've ever seen by a president," referring to President Obama's economic policies, something is very wrong.  I don't blame business owners for sitting on the little extra cash they have. Based on the measures that government has taken to weaken the private sector, I would too.